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A “not too horrible” general gaming podcast in production for more years than we care to admit.

Dice are our vice.

About

On my twelfth birthday my grandparents bought me a red box with a dragon on it that they thought I would enjoy because I had such a vivid imagination. It was, of course, the Basic D&D box, and so my gaming life began. None of my friends had ever heard of the game, however, and so many of my early friendships were formed as we discovered the joys of Monte Haul adventures and mass monster killing.

For years off and on I played D&D and painted models for myself and the others in my various gaming groups. I still have my first set of Ral Partha miniatures . . . and I’d like to say, hey, at least I improved. I mean, I was only 12.

In high school, in addition to playing the occasional D&D game, I also discovered the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series of board games with a group of reprobates that make up the core of my group of friends to this day. Things like Conquest of the Empire, Fortress America, and of course, Axis and Allies gave us something to play around with while we discussed philosophy, politics, and religion.

Clarification: Philosophy: “Do you think frozen pizzas are round to symbolize the circular nature of reality and how all things are interconnected?” “Shut up and take off your city. I just killed you with my catapults.” Politics: “Where would we hide, do you think, if the Russians and Cubans invaded and shot up our high school during Mr. Veril’s history class?” “Shut up and take away your partisans, the jets just took you out.” And Religion: “Do you think God looks down on us like we’re looking down on these pieces, moving us around with no regard to our free will?” “Shut up and move, will you? Or are you planning on just sitting on fortified Australia and keeping us up until dawn?”

Through a strange mix of events and coincidences I ended up attending Norwich University, the Military College of Vermont, and the second club I joined, after the theatre group, was NUTS, or the Norwich University Tactics Society. As a small boy Ihad seen historical wargamers setting up massive tables with beautiful terrain for huge WWII tank battles a few times in a local mall. I’d never thought of playing myself, but I was very intrigued. NUTS was mainly playing Johnny Reb when I first joined, and I played a few games and was hooked. Just as I got interested, however, NUTS transferred its focus from historicals to Games Workshop’s fairly new games, Rogue Trader:

Warhammer 40,000 and Space Marine (Epic).

I LOVED it! I had always been a huge fan of SciFi and Fantasy, reading voraciously to the point that I would forego lunch at school so I could secretly save up my money to buy books (many of which are still with me, gracing the shelves of McNerdigan’s Pub in the basement). I didn’t collect an army for myself right off, but I played a bunch with club-members’ models. I knew that I wanted my friends back home to play these games with me, but to introduce them to 40K would have been overwhelming. So I started to collect the models for multiple armies for Epic, and that summer I introduced Games Workshop to Russ and my other friends.

Soon, though, Epic gave way to full on 40K up at Norwich, and in one academic year I built a Space Marine army, Imperial Guard, Squats, and Tyranids. My painting was getting better and better but was still . . . not great.

Grad School at FSU for Theatre Production and Research was a dry spell for gaming . . .although anything but for a lot of other, more colorful elements of my life. I continued to read non-stop (not easy with a grad-school reading load on top), and frequented a game store I stumbled upon wistfully, although all I bought the entire time I was down there was one MechWarrior starter box.

When I returned to the North East after my sojourn through the South and Theatre, I fell right back in with my friends and we delved back into 40K, and then Necromunda, and then Warhammer Fantasy, and then Mordheim. Somewhere in there the store DakkaDakka, the brain child of Russ and his brother John was born, and I helped make a bunch of their tables, discovering my deep love of terrain making. At the same time my painting had greatly improved, culminating in a bronze Golden Daemon for my original Space Marine Chapter the Divine Wind.

And since then things have just gotten crazy. Dakka closed under the growing pressure of child-rearing, and we became gaming nomads in the deserts of New Hampshire, and we ended up playing whatever the local games of note were. We discovered and discarded (all but) Babylon 5 and Flames of War. Everyone but me eventually jumped into Warmachine, and then that’s all anyone played for awhile. I jumped in so I could play games with my friends. I worked for Games Workshop for about a year, was offered a position as a regional manager, but regretfully said no because I didn’t want to leave my home.

It was at this point that we rediscovered ‘Hobby Game’ board games, and we never looked back. Regular game nights with friends introduced these games to my wife, Karen, and now she loves (some) of them as well.

Gaming, painting, and modeling have made hard times bearable and good times great for years now. My circle of friends has grown through games more than through any other avenue. And since the podcast began in 2008, my ‘gaming group’ has expanded beyond my wildest dreams to include folks from all around the world that I speak with regularly.  From ‘normal’ gamers like me right through to dozens of the ‘lucky ones’ who have found a life in the gaming industry.

 

Games . . . yeah, they’re ok.

 
 
Mon, 27 October 2008

One of the challenges of being brought up in a military family is that you have to get used to moving a lot.  This leads to two things: 1) You tend to become very close with your family and need to find ways to have fun with each other and 2) You need to figure out ways to make friends quickly.

The first issue was overcome in our family with games.  We had family game nights frequently with a wide variety of classic family games (Chess, Backgammon, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Risk, etc.) and some less common but very fun games. (Yacht RaceCarrier StrikeChopper Strike20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Game)


The second issue was overcome with the help of the first.  John (my brother) and I soon discovered that we could make many new friends quickly by either getting involved with gaming groups, or starting one if it didn't already exist.   Of course these gaming groups evolved beyond family games into some of the meatier types of games such as RPG's (D&D, TravelerStar Frontiers) and war games (Axis and AlliesShogunFortress AmericaBroadsides and Boarding PartiesStarfleet BattlesBattletech, etc.)


Thus, gaming became a fundamental tool that my brother and I have always used, not only to entertain ourselves and our families, but also to meet new people, make new lifelong friends, and share thoughts and ideas with likeminded folks around the world.   We were fortunate enough to discover this when we were young as we literally moved around the world with our family.

Despite the early lesson, I am still amazed at how gaming can so easily bring people together from different geographies and cultures.  This was reinforced for me when I started the DakkaDakka.com website in the late 90's.  This little website designed to let local players keep track of league scores and show off their army pictures to each other was attracting visitors from around the world.   The site was so popular that it eventually led to a family run game store with a focus on providing a place to socialize and play.  The whole adventure with the Dakka Dakka website and store led to a many great friendships that I cherish to this day. 

Eventually it was time to have a family and my priorities shifted.  Nicole (my wife), John, and I decided it was time to sell the store, and eventually I sold the website as well.  But my love for games has never dwindled, especially now that my daughters are becoming old enough to begin to discover the wonder of games.   It also turned out to be difficult for me to stop sharing my love of gaming with others, which is one of the reasons that The D6 Generation was born.

Today I enjoy the challenge of balancing my family life, job, and gaming.  The D6 Generation allows me to share how I go about that balancing act with others, but more importantly, it keeps me in touch with one of my favorite lessons of childhood: Gaming brings people together from around the world. 

 

Thanks for listening & happy gaming,

Russ Wakelin

 
 
 

[Note: Raef was a founding host of the D6 Generation but has since moved on from the show.  He still contributes via The Hollywood Minute segment and occasional guest spots in the third chair.]​

 

I was instantly hooked into miniature wargaming when, as a 12 year old boy, my family took my brother and meto Gettysburg, PA.  While there we were in a store, and I saw a 3D terraintable with Confederate and Union Soldiers displayed on the board.  I thought it was yet another diorama, but nooooo the shopkeep assured me it was in fact, wait for it, a miniature game.   I was instantly hooked, although did not play my first miniature game until I met Craig and Russ and the gang in 1995ish.  The game was 40k.  Of course, having grown up on RPG's and Computer games goes without saying all the way back the Nintendo systems and D&D.  And of course comics became a love of mine at the same time as D&D.  Having collected all of the original Todd McFarlane comics, just 'cause I was a kid reading comics, is a proud achievement of mine.

Now I try to insulate myself from the powerful mind force that Russ both consciously and unconsciously projects into my brain in regards to different games.  I love collecting, modeling, painting and playing.  I often say that for these reason, miniature wargaming is the perfect hobby for me.  It lets me collect when I am in that mood, it lets me play and socialize when I am in that mood, and it lets me read and create when I am in that mood.  Perfect! 

I am new to the MMO scene having started with LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online), gravitated to WoW, and now am enjoying the freedom of WAR. (Warhammer Online).  For the first time in my life, I will actually be playing PC games on a gaming Rig (DogHouse Systems).  I also enjoy my xbox 360 and enjoy the stealth action adventure games the best, think Bioshock and Thief, and Splinter Cell before it went weird.

I am generally a happy person who views the world as the glass is half full, and enjoy the different roles I have in life as: Friend, Lawyer, Husband, Father, Gamer, and Podcast Host.